Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Uruguay Squad for South American Championship

Uruguay again without Capó Ortega

The number two ranked South American country, Uruguay wll again be faovrite to be the top South America Qualifier in the upcoming CONSUR A tournement to be played in Chile and Uruguay starting this Saturday. Uruguay has long been second behind Argentina but has had problems on accassion against Chile. The match between the two nations should be the deciding fator in who advances to faces the runner-up of the NACRA matches featuring Canada and the USA to take place in July. In theory Uruguay is in pole position but it will not be a smooth ride. The highly controversial match schedule sees Uruguay facing Brazil and Chile two days apart which, in effect, means that it will need to have its strongest players on the park against Chile and have a mixture of tired players and reserves to take on the Brazilians.

Sould Uruguay advance, as expected, it would be a significant accomplishment. The squad has a number of notable players but is lacking the nations most accomplished player. Rodrigo Capó Ortega is not in the twenty-seven man squad. The veteran of Rugby World Cup 2003 has been playing in the Top 14 for Castres for a decade and has played well over two-hundred first class matches for the French club side in the Top 14 and Heineken Cup. Capó Oretga had been listed in the initial squad but decided to stay in France due to the upcoming matches which sees Castres finish the Top 14 and okay the barrage and possibly Semi Finals and Final. The decision was made by Capó Ortega and not enforced by Castres. Now aged 32 he is a senior but he remains on track to face the North American runner up at the end of 2013. Also missing from the squad are scumhalves Guillermo Lijstenstein and Francisco Vecino.

While Capó Ortega will not face Argentina, Brazil or Chile the Uruguayan national mens team will have four foreign based players. Mario Sagario of French Pro d2 club Massy and Alejo Corral of SIC from Buenos Aires are in the squad as are the pair of Jerónimo Etcheverry and Alberto Román who play their rugby for Valpolicella in Italy.